Report cites Iowa racial disparity in pot arrests

The American Civil Liberties Union says the racial disparity between blacks and whites arrested for marijuana possession Iowa is the worst in the nation.

The Des Moines Register says the ACLU report issued Tuesday cited FBI data collected from 2001 through 2010. The data say black people in Iowa are arrested about eight times as often as white people, even though both smoke pot at about the same rate.

The report recommends legalizing marijuana as the best way to end racially biased enforcement.

The ACLU says that in 2010, Iowa black people were arrested at a rate 8.34 times higher than whites for marijuana possession. That was a rate of 1,454 blacks arrested per 100,000 of the black general population, compared with 174 whites arrested per 100,000.

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